After more analysis of the research, that doesn’t seem to be the case. In general, a healthy diet and physical activity have much greater health benefits than alcohol and have been more extensively studied. Instead, much alcohol research is observational, meaning it follows large groups of drinkers and abstainers over time. But observational studies cannot prove cause-and-effect because moderate drinkers differ in many ways from non-drinkers and heavy drinkers—in diet, exercise, and smoking habits, for instance. Observational studies can still yield useful information, but they also require researchers to gather data about when and how the alcohol is consumed, since alcohol’s effect on health depends heavily on drinking patterns.
Adult Health
There is also some evidence that genes influence how alcohol affects the cardiovascular system. An enzyme called alcohol dehydrogenase helps metabolize alcohol. One variant of this enzyme, called alcohol dehydrogenase type 1C (ADH1C), comes in two “flavors.” One quickly breaks down alcohol, the other does it more slowly. Moderate drinkers who have two copies of the gene for the slow-acting enzyme are at much lower risk for cardiovascular disease than moderate drinkers who have two genes for the fast-acting enzyme. 44 Those with one gene for the slow-acting enzyme and one for the faster enzyme fall in between. Scientific evidence about drinking alcohol goes back nearly 100 years—and includes plenty of variability in alcohol’s health effects.
- Globally, the WHO European Region has the highest alcohol consumption level and the highest proportion of drinkers in the population.
- In general, a healthy diet and physical activity have much greater health benefits than alcohol and have been more extensively studied.
- In general, risks exceed benefits until middle age, when cardiovascular disease begins to account for an increasingly large share of the burden of disease and death.
- It’s hard to escape the message these days that every sip of wine, every swig of beer is bad for your health.
- It means on days when a person does drink, women do not have more than one drink and men do not have more than two drinks.
- Learn more about the results of some large prospective cohort studies of alcohol consumption and cardiovascular disease.
Researchers
But after countless studies, the data do not justify is alcohol good for you sweeping statements about the effects of moderate alcohol consumption on human health. Many of these trials have been conducted for weeks, and in a few cases months and even up to 2 years, to look at changes in the blood, but a long-term trial to test experimentally the effects of alcohol on cardiovascular disease has not been done. A recent successful effort in the U.S. to launch an international study was funded by the National Institutes of Health. Although the proposal was peer-reviewed and initial participants had been randomized to drink in moderation or to abstain, post hoc the NIH decided to stop the trial due to internal policy concerns. The risk of developing cancer increases substantially the more alcohol is consumed. This drinking pattern is responsible for the majority of alcohol-attributable breast cancers in women, with the highest burden observed in countries of the European Union (EU).
Risks of moderate alcohol use
- As these examples illustrate, drinking alcohol may raise the risk of some conditions but not others.
- One way to improve our collective understanding of the issue is to look at both observational and experimental data together whenever possible.
And drinking raises the risk of problems in the digestive system. For example, it may be used to define the risk of illness or injury based on the number of drinks a person has in a week. It’s hard to escape the message these days that every sip of wine, every swig of beer is bad for your health.
- The NIH found that officials at one of its institutes had solicited funding from alcohol manufacturers, violating federal policy.
- And we need the media to treat the subject with the nuance it requires.
- It is also addictive, especially for people with a family history of alcoholism.
- You and your community can take steps to improve everyone’s health and quality of life.
Heavy drinking, https://idea.gt/50-sobriety-gifts-ideas-effective-substance-abuse-8/ on the other hand, boosts your risk of heart disease. Such nuance is rarely captured in broader conversations about alcohol research—or even in observational studies, as researchers don’t always ask about drinking patterns, focusing instead on total consumption. To get a clearer picture of the health effects of alcohol, researchers and journalists must be far more attuned to the nuances of this highly complex issue. In the past, moderate drinking was thought to be linked with a lower risk of dying from heart disease and possibly diabetes.
Moderate alcohol use
Scientists aren’t sure why exactly, but it might be that a drink or two helps your body deal with high blood sugar levels in a healthy way. Alcohol is a toxic, psychoactive, and dependence-producing substance Alcohol Use Disorder and has been classified as a Group 1 carcinogen by the International Agency for Research on Cancer decades ago – this is the highest risk group, which also includes asbestos, radiation and tobacco. Alcohol causes at least seven types of cancer, including the most common cancer types, such as bowel cancer and female breast cancer. Ethanol (alcohol) causes cancer through biological mechanisms as the compound breaks down in the body, which means that any beverage containing alcohol, regardless of its price and quality, poses a risk of developing cancer. In the United States, moderate drinking for healthy adults is different for men and women.